COVENTRY businessman John Holden has just chalked up his first £1 million clear profit after developing a simple business idea.

The tycoon, who left school at 15-years-old without an O-Level to his name, provides degree level training for students who aren't able to go through conventional routes.

The self-confessed "late starter", who left Cardinal Wiseman Comprehensive in Potters Green with no qualifications, is now head of his own international company, RDI Resource Development.

From his offices in Brandon Lane, Toll Bar End, John offers the opportunity of studying for a low-cost fully accredited degree to any student willing to settle for a "virtual reality campus".

His hugely popular distance learning courses in management, IT and accountancy seem a million miles away from the old correspondence courses.

Fifteen years after he set up RDI in the back bedroom of his home in Allesley, the company today employs the services of lecturers from Leicester, Bradford and Sunderland universities who run on-line tutorials in 20 different countries.

And since the introduction of tuition fees, the numbers of British students choosing to live at home and study locally has shot up.

Which is why 60-year-old John, who now lives in Meriden, is looking at a £10 million turnover this year.

He says: "Our courses have always been popular in Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong.

"Today with the average English student graduating with debts touching on £20,000, more people than ever are willing to miss out on the campus experience.

"Of course, as a father of three I understand that going to university and moving away from home is all part of growing-up for many teenagers.

"But there's a lot of smoke and mirrors attached to some degree courses which generally only offer three terms a year with perhaps 12 hours of lectures a week.

"We offer a way of getting a qualification faster via a virtual campus experience with local or on-line tutorials and access to an on-line library. Those who wish can even come into our offices and study here."

That flexibility means its possible to fast-track an honours degree in business management in two years while those who already have an HND in the subject can do a "top up" course in a year.

It's all a far cry from John's own background. When he left Cardinal Wiseman he was considered one of the lucky ones to have got an apprenticeship at Jaguar.

He said: "In those days everybody worked in the car industry and jobs were easy to get. As a young man I ended up in the oil exploration industry in West Africa and the Middle East.

"Later I came back to Coventry to study for a Higher HNC and HND in evening classes.

"I had to work full time because by then I had a wife and young family to support.

"Then I took the bull by the horns and did a diploma in management studies at Leicester University, which led to a consultancy job with IE Projects in Rugby.

"When they went out of business I was made redundant and so in 1981 I did an MBA at Aston University."

John had kept some business consultancy jobs in Libya and the Far East.

It was seeing how popular English study courses were abroad that led to John forging links with British universities and setting up his study-at-home virtual reality campus.